


Edric and Emira Separate

by Amity_towards_all



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 16,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amity_towards_all/pseuds/Amity_towards_all
Summary: After getting stood up for Grom, Ed and Em wonder whether they spend too much time with each other to the exclusion of everyone else. So they agree to spend all their time apart and make a bet as to who will come crawling back to the other first.But when they realize that whoever befriends Amity will make the other the odd one out in the family, they start to compete for their baby sister's affections, with mixed results, using everything at their disposal and even bringing Luz into the mix.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Edric Blight, Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Edric Blight & Emira Blight & Luz Noceda
Comments: 128
Kudos: 754





	1. The Bet

It was the day after Grom, and although Ed and Em had ended up having a pretty good time, they were still sore about both getting stood up.

“Can you believe that?” Em said in the illusion homeroom while practicing a spell to make her reflection pop out of the mirror and appear to switch places with her.

“I know,” Ed said. “Why would anyone stand us up?”

Standing next to them, a tall witch with orange hair and blue horns named Keeko snickered. “You’re kidding, right?”

Ed and Em turned to her.

“What do you mean?” Ed asked.

“They probably didn’t want to feel left out.”

“Left out?” Em said.

“Yeah, you two spend all your time together, and anyone else just feels like they’re on the outside looking in.”

“That’s not true!” Ed said.

“Yeah!” Em said. “We spent the whole day apart just last… last…”

Em tried to think, but she couldn’t remember the last time they’d spent the whole day apart.

“See?” Keeko said. “Remember when the three of us were working on that group project? The two of you only talked to each other. You barely even looked in my direction. I would’ve been annoyed except it meant I didn’t have to do any work. I bet your dates figured they might as well just go with each other instead of spending the whole night competing with their date’s sibling for their attention and losing.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Ed and Em both said.

“Let me ask you this: were you going separately, or was it a double date?”

“Separately!” Ed said.

“Yeah!” Em agreed. “I mean, they were going to pick us up at our house… at the same time… and we were going to the same place…”

Keeko smirked. “Have you guys ever been on a date that wasn’t a double date?”

Ed and Em looked at each other. They hadn’t.

“Once you got stood up, did you spend any time with anyone else at Grom, or did you spend the whole night with each other?”

Ed’s and Em’s gazes turned down to the floor.

“It’s a good thing you enjoy each other’s company,” Keeko said. “Because that might be the only company you ever enjoy.”

* * *

Ed and Em ruminated on what Keeko said all day. For once, they didn’t talk to each other in class. Anyone who didn’t know better might've thought they were actually paying attention. It wasn’t until after class, in the hallway, that one of them finally spoke to the other.

“I should’ve known you were the reason I got stood up,” Em said.

“Me?!” Ed replied. “You’re just as responsible for me getting stood up as vice versa.”

“Not really,” Em said.

“How do you figure?”

“You think I like spending all my time with you? I have to do it to keep you out of trouble.”

“I don’t need you to keep me out of trouble!”

“Are you joking? Remember the incident with the roc and the emerald?”

“That wasn’t my fault! I was tricked by a group of talking elephants!”

“How many times are you going to blame things like talking elephants for your problems? I guess my worst fear is coming true after all. I’ll be stuck with you forever.”

Ed looked away. “I thought that was a joke.”

Em looked at him. Was he actually hurt by what she'd said? She hadn’t expected that. Maybe she’d taken things too far. But now that she’d said it, what was she going to do, take it back? Besides, he’d get over it. “Well, it wasn’t.”

“Yeah? Well you need me way more than I need you,” Ed replied.

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am. You wouldn’t last a day without me.”

“Want to bet on it?”

Ed considered. “That’s not a bad idea.”

Em gave him a mischievous smile. “OK, starting today we’ll stop hanging out. The loser’s the first one who can’t take it anymore. And what are the stakes?”

“How about the loser has to stay in class every day, take notes, and cover for the other when they cut for a whole month.”

“Deal!”

They shook on it.

As they turned away from each other, each took on an almost identical grin and thought _this is going to be easy!_


	2. The Walk Home

Ed and Em got to Hexside’s doors at the same time and stopped at the doorway. Normally, they walked home together, naturally, but now they couldn’t.

Em looked at Ed. “OK, I’ll go home first. You can start after a few minutes.”

“Why should I have to wait?” he replied.

Em almost told him he could go ahead if it was that important to him, but suddenly felt belligerent. “Well why should I have to wait?”

“OK, we can alternate who goes first each day. And today it’ll be me.”

“Why should you get today?”

“Hey,” they heard a voice say. It was Keeko. “Can you stop blocking the doorway while you argue?”

Ed and Em stepped aside. Keeko was about to leave, but then turned around.

“So what, you two are trying to spend less time together because of what I said?”

“Yeah,” they said in unison.

Keeko laughed. “Looks like you couldn’t even make it through the day.”

“What do you mean?” Em asked.

“Don’t you see? You’re picking a fight over something trivial because it gives you an excuse to keep talking to each other even though you’re not supposed to be.”

“That’s absurd,” Ed said.

“Is it? Funny how neither of you came up with the bright idea to just flip a snail.”

Ed and Em opened their mouths to protest before realizing they didn't have a response.

Keeko pulled snail out of her pocket. “OK, shell up, Emira leaves first. Shell down, Edric.”

She flipped it. Em was the winner.

“Well,” Keeko said as she walked off. “Let’s see how long this little experiment lasts.”

Em started to walk away. “You know,” she said. “She’s really starting to get on my nerves,” to which Ed nodded in agreement.


	3. Em Makes Plans with Amity

Ed waited as Em walked away, and he was already feeling lonely. Wow, that didn't bode well for his winning the bet. But that was OK. He and Em had plenty of friends he could spend time with.

Then he realized, he _and_ Em had plenty of friends. Neither of them had any friends separately from each other. Which meant that if Em made plans with their friends, he wouldn’t be able to come along, and he’d be completely alone.

Ed grabbed his scroll and in a flurry of activity contacted every one of their friends– no, _his_ friends– and made plans with all of them for the whole week. Now he could relax. He wouldn’t be alone for at least a while.

* * *

Em walked home feeling just a little bit down. Walking alone, with no one to talk to, was really boring, and kind of depressing. As soon as she got home, she was ready to make some plans and be around people. But when she got out her scroll to contact their friends– no, _her_ friends– they were confused. They told her they’d already made plans with Ed and had assumed she’d be there too.

Em made a fist and slammed it on her desk. How could she have let that dope outmaneuver her like this? She sat in her room, bored and lonely.

Wait a minute, was this how Mittens used to feel? All the time?

Wait, that was it! Mittens! She could spend some time with her. Not the most fun person to spend the day with, but better than nothing. And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Mittens seemed like she’d really loosened up recently. The night before, at Grom, it looked like she was really enjoying herself.

Em went to her sister’s room. “Mittens? Are you in there?”

“Yeah,” she called out.

“Can I come in?”

“Why?”

“I just want to see you.”

After a pause, Amity said, “OK.”

Soon, the door unlocked and Em was let in.

“So, what are you up to?” Em asked.

“Just reading,” Amity said.

“Oh? What are you reading?”

Amity went to her bed and put the book under her pillow. “You’d just think it’s dumb.”

“No, I wouldn’t! Come on, you can tell me.”

“Well… it’s about these rival magicians who fall in love.”

What kind of nonsense was that? Em almost rolled her eyes but stopped herself. “Oh, that sounds really interesting. But how’d you like to put down the book and go out to actually do something for once?”

Amity turned away. “Yeah, I get it, I’m a loser. Just leave me alone.”

“No! I didn’t mean it that way. I just want to spend some time with you, just the two of us.”

“Just the two of us?” Amity asked.

“Yeah.”

“Without Ed?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, ‘Why?’ Ed and I don’t do _everything_ together.”

Amity looked confused. No, she looked positively baffled, like she’d just seen a giraffe or something equally bizarre. Wow, she and Ed really _did_ spend too much time together.

“Come on,” Em pleaded. “We can go someplace you like, like the library.”

“The library? Are you serious? You think I’d want to go there with you after what happened the last time we were there together?”

“Come on, I’ve apologized so many times for that. And haven’t Ed and I done a lot for you since then?”

“You apologized because I almost got stuck in a book forever. You never apologized for stealing my diary and trying to spread it around to everyone.”

“That was for your own good! And we wouldn’t have spread anything too personal. Just little stuff.”

“Just let me read,” Amity said.

Em let out a huff. “Fine, if it’s that important to you, I’m sorry about what we did with your diary.”

“Yeah, that sounded really sincere.”

“Oh it’s never enough for you, is it?” Em said.

They stood in silence for a moment, but Em didn’t leave. “OK, what if we went somewhere else? How about the bookstore?”

“I don’t really buy books. I just get them from the library. I’m saving up my money.”

“How about I buy you one?”

Amity raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Just to be nice.”

“That doesn’t sound like you.”

Em stamped her foot. “It’s like pulling fangs with you! You were perfectly happy to let me do something for you when it meant you could get a better grade on a test. You know what, forget it. I don’t know why I bothered.”

Em left, but lingered at the doorway. “Amity, I haven’t always been as nice to you as I should’ve been. And I’m sorry. But when I’m trying to change that, you could at least try to not make it so hard.”

Em closed the door and sullenly started walking back to her room when she heard Amity open it.

“Wait. Em… maybe we _could_ go out. You don’t need to buy me anything. We can just spend some time together.”

Em turned around. “Really?!”

Em ran over and grabbed Amity in a hug, which she groaned about.

“Great!” Em said. “Let’s get going! You’ll have a lot more fun than…”

She’d almost said, “than you would reading that silly book,” but thought better of it.

“A lot more fun than you think,” Em finished.


	4. A Trip to the Bookstore

Em and Amity made their way through the market.

“You’re sure you want to go to the bookstore?” Amity asked.

“Yeah… unless you want to go somewhere else!” Em said hopefully.

“No, the bookstore’s good.”

They walked in silence for a bit. “Hey Em,” Amity said. “I shouldn’t have said that about how being nice isn’t like you. I appreciate you helping me train for the entrance exam and helping Luz out before Grom.”

“That’s OK. I guess… I guess I can see why you might say that.”

After a few moments of silence, Em spoke again. “Let me ask you this though. You seemed like you were in a bad mood earlier. But why? You seemed to have such a good time just yesterday at Grom.”

Amity considered for a moment. “I guess that might be the reason in a way.”

“Why?”

“Well… if I tell you this, can you not tell anyone? Even Ed?”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Amity looked uncertain or a moment but then went on. “Well, I did have a great time last night. But now it’s over, and everything’s back to normal. So I guess I’m kind of down about that. Does that make any sense?”

“Yeah, I understand what you mean. But in a way Grom doesn’t have to be over.”

“What you mean?”

“Think about it: what was it you really liked about Grom? I’m sure getting dressed up and the music and the dancing were part of it, but wasn’t the main thing spending time with your friends? And you can still do that.”

Amity thought about that. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. That’s pretty smart, Em.”

“Yeah, well I guess every once in a while, I can still teach you a thing or two.”

After a few more moments of silence, it was Amity’s turn to break it. “So I heard you both got stood up last night.”

“Yeah,” Em said grumpily.

“Were you upset?”

Em thought about it. “Not really to be honest. I guess it hurt my pride more than anything else. I had a good time with… with Ed.”

They kept walking without saying much until they got to the bookstore. Em hoped Amity wouldn’t spend too long there. Although the place was full of books, Amity only seemed to have eyes for one.

“What’s that?” Em asked. “The Gecko Sonata?”

“Yeah, it’s the new book by the author of Otabin the Bookmaker, but for an older audience. It’s been highly anticipated.”

“You want to get it?”

Amity sighed. “No, it’s too expensive. I put a hold on it at the library, so I’ll get it… eventually.”

Em could understand Amity's reticence. Although the Blight family was wealthy, their parents didn't exactly give them a lot of spending money.

Em looked around. “You know, you could always take a copy and read it here.”

Amity looked around herself and gave Em a mischievous grin. Em was surprised. So, it looked like her little sister had a bit of mischief in her after all, if the incentives were right.

Amity took a copy. “But what are you going to do while I'm reading?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll just look around.”

Amity took the book to a chair and started reading. Em browsed for a while but she was terribly bored. She looked around and noticed a door. She checked the handle. Locked.

“Hey!” said a gruff voice. It belonged to a large man with a nose like an anteater. “What are you doing with that door?”

“Nothing,” Em said. “Just looking around.”

“Well that room’s off-limits. Now get away from there.”

“Fine!” Em said. Of course, now she only wanted to know what was behind that door even more.

Then the same man noticed Amity reading her book. “Hey! You’ve read that long enough. Either buy it or put it back. We don’t want any freeloaders here.”

 _What a jerk!_ Em thought. He could’ve at least said it politely.

“Fine!” Amity said. “I’ll put it back and let you get back to your other customers. Oh, wait, there aren’t any, are there? Can’t imagine why.”

Amity went over to Em. “Let’s get out of this place. This owner’s such a jackass. I miss the guy who used to own this place.”

“Hey, Mittens, before we go, how about we see what’s behind this door.”

“I don’t know, I don’t think we’re supposed to.”

“Come on, you really want to do what that guy says?”

Amity looked in his direction and glared. “Well… OK, as long as we’re quick.”

Em drew a circle and made a duplicate of herself and Amity to appear to browse the shelves and then took out the same spell she and Ed had used to break into the library. She and Amity went in.

“It’s empty,” Amity said.

“Not quite. Look at the floor.”

On the floor was a piece of paper with a number of dotted lines on it and a few other things drawn on it.

“I think we’re supposed to fold it along these lines,” Amity said.

Em and Amity folded the paper, and before long, it had formed into the shape of a life-sized person. Then, as Em made the last fold, the paper person suddenly started moving.

“Yes!” it said. “I’m finally back!”


	5. The Paper Person

“I can’t thank you enough!” the paper person said and hugged both of them.

“Ouch!” Em said.

“Sorry, did I give you a papercut?”

"That’s OK,” Em said. “Who are you?”

“I remember you,” Amity said. “You used to go around the bookstore recommending books to people.”

“Yes. My name’s Aspen. I used to be good friends with the old owner of this store, Mr. Winkle. When he sold the store, he knew how much I loved this job, so he made the new owner promise to keep me on. But he got angry at me for telling customers that the new John de Plume novel wasn’t up to his usual standards, so he unfolded me and kept me here.”

“That’s terrible!” Amity said.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Em said.

“But how?” Amity asked.

“Well, we could unfold you into a flat sheet of paper again, and then fold you so that we can fit you into this bag.” She pointed to Amity’s bag. “But will that hurt you?”

“Not at all!” Aspen said.

The sisters made quick work of it and snuck out of the bookstore. Then they refolded him and made their way to Mr. Winkle’s house.

Aspen knocked on the door, but it didn’t make any sound.

“Uh, I might need you to do that,” it said.

Em knocked, and an elderly man with round glasses answered. “Aspen!” he said.

He gave it a hug. “Ouch! I keep forgetting about papercuts. Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?”

“Forgiven you?”

“Yes. I’ve come the bookstore so many times to see you, but the new owner said you were angry at me and didn’t want to see me.”

“That’s not true!”

Aspen explained the whole situation to Mr. Winkle.

“Oh Aspen, I’m so sorry! I should’ve never sold the store to that man.” He turned to Em and Amity. “I can’t thank you girls enough for saving my friend! Is there anything I can do for you? A reward?”

“Well…” Em said.

“Not at all,” Amity said. “We were happy to do it.”

“Hey, I remember you. You used to come to my store.”

“Yeah. I remember Aspen. I’m just glad it’s safe again.”

“You girls did a wonderful thing. You should be proud of yourselves.”

Mr. Winkle went back into the house.

“Wow, he seems like a nice man,” Em said.

Then he and Aspen came back out with Mr. Winkle carrying a big club with spikes.

“All right, Aspen, you ready to get some payback?!”

“You betcha!” Aspen said, and the two ran off.

“Well, for the most part,” Em amended.

Amity started laughing.

“What?” Em asked.

“Nothing, it’s just that was a lot of fun. I guess there are times when making a little trouble pays off.”

“Yeah, every so often. I had a lot of fun too. I just wish–”

She stopped herself. Without even thinking of it, she’d almost said “I just wish Ed had been here with us.”

“You just wish what?” Amity asked.

"Uh, nothing.”

All these years, Em had thought of Amity as the spoilsport who ruined her fun with Ed. But maybe that was just because they'd never made any effort to include her.

“Hey, Mittens, maybe I should try reading some of your books. Can I borrow one?”

“Really? Sure.”

“What’s your favorite?’

Amity opened her mouth to answer, but then paused. “Actually, let me think of something you would like.”

“Thanks, Mittens.”

Em and Amity started walking back home when Em suddenly got an idea.

“Hey, Mittens, I just need to do one thing real quick. Stay here, OK?”

“OK,” she said.

Em ran off and came back just a few minutes later. “OK, let’s go home.”


	6. Ed's Scheme Takes Shape

Ed got home late. He’d been out with his and Em’s friends, but it just wasn’t the same without Em there. He’d felt bad about her missing out on all the fun, but he also missed her.

Ed saw Em in the living room. They eyed each other uneasily for a moment before wordlessly coming to an understanding that they could say just a few words to each other about their days without it violating the bet.

“I had a lot of fun today with _my_ friends,” Ed said. “It’s too bad you couldn’t be there.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Em replied. “I had a great time today with Mittens.”

“Mittens? Come on, if you’re going to make something up, it has to at least be believable.”

“It’s true! Mittens can be a lot more fun than you think. In fact, I may have been wrong all these years about who the fun sibling in the family is.”

“Oh, please,” Ed said.

Then he heard a shout from Amity. “Em!”

Amity ran into the room holding a book. The Gecko Sonata? What was that?

“I found this in my room! Did you buy this?”

“You caught me,” Em said.

Amity leapt into Em’s arms and gave her a hug. What? Ed hadn’t seen her act this affectionately since she was a little kid.

“But it’s so expensive! I told you you didn’t need to buy anything for me.”

“I didn’t need to, but I wanted to. And don’t worry, I got it from a different bookstore, not the one owned by that jerk.”

“Em, it’s too much! I’ll pay you back.”

“I won’t hear of it!” Then she looked at Ed and smirked. “If you want, you can pay me back with another hug!”

Ed expected Amity to roll her eyes and refuse, but to his amazement she hugged Em again.

“I’m going to read it right now! Thanks so much, Em!”

“Anything for my little sister!”

Amity turned around, but then glanced at Ed. “Oh, hi Ed,” she said before running off.

Ed was dumbstruck and his mouth was agape.

Em looked at him smugly. “Isn’t Mittens sweet? I think we’re going to be the best of friends.” With that, she left, chuckling.

Once Ed had gotten over the shock of what he’d just seen, he started to get worried. If Em and Mittens really did become friends, where did that leave him? He’d be the odd one out in the family.

Wait a minute, was that how Mittens felt? All the time?

Ed realized he had to start working on Amity right away, but how could he possibly compete with what he’d just seen? He could buy her something, but whatever that book was, it was clearly something Amity had desperately wanted. He had no idea whether there was anything else she wanted that much, let alone what that thing could be.

Wait a minute, what if it wasn’t a “what” but a “who”? He thought back to Grom yesterday. He’d seen the way that Amity had looked and acted around Luz. He’d never seen her that way before.

He ran over to Amity’s room. “Hey, Mittens, can I come in?”

“I’m reading,” she said.

“Come on, it’ll only take a second.”

“Can’t it wait?”

What was up with her and her books? “I promise, it’ll be quick!”

Amity sighed so loudly that Ed could hear it through the door. “Fine.”

She unlocked it and let Ed in.

“Hey, Mittens, I just wanted to ask whether you might want to do something tomorrow”

“Do what?”

Ed hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Uh… it’s a surprise!”

“Well, after Grom yesterday and going out with Em today, I really need to get back to studying.”

“Come on, Mittens, one day won’t make a difference.”

“Yeah, it will.”

Ed was getting annoyed. “In that case, why are you reading that book Em gave you instead of studying?”

Amity glared at him. “Just leave.”

Ed felt like kicking himself. Bad move. Then he saw Amity sigh and put her book away to reach for a textbook.

“Mittens, what are you doing?”

“You’re right. I should get back to work. I’ve been taking it too easy lately. Too many… distractions”

“No! I didn’t mean that. Come on, Mittens, no one works harder than you. Everyone deserves a break sometimes.”

She looked at him uncertainly.

“Come on, read your book tonight. You can study tomorrow.”

“You don’t think I’m being lazy?”

“Of course not! No one could call you lazy, Mittens.”

Amity hesitated. “Ed, you really want to do something with me tomorrow?”

“Yeah,”

“Well, if I study tonight, maybe I could make some time for tomorrow.”

“That’s OK, Mittens. I can see how much you want to read that book. We can do it some other time.”

As Amity picked up the book again, Ed started to walk out before saying, “I guess I’ll just tell Luz we have to reschedule.”

Amity put the book down fast. “Did you say ‘Luz’?”

Ed turned around. “Yeah, I thought she might like what I had planned, so I invited her along. But I don’t think she’d want to come without you.”

“Oh,” Amity looked away and blushed. “Well, if you two have already made plans, I’d hate to make you change them for my sake. I guess I don’t have a choice.”

“Great!” Ed said. He ran over to Amity and gave her a hug, which she groaned about. “We’re going to have a great time!”

Once Ed left the room, he checked the time. Maybe he could still get to the Owl House before it was too late. He just hoped that Luz was free tomorrow.


	7. Ed Visits the Owl House

“Eda!” Luz said at the Owl House. “Take a look at this!”

She put a flyer in front of Eda’s face.

“The zoo?” Eda said.

“Yes! It says they’re finally reopening it after fixing the damage caused by the aqrabuamelus getting loose! This is great! I can finally see all the crazy creatures of the Boiling Isles without having to worry about getting eaten by any of them!”

“Without having to worry about getting eaten? Didn’t you just say they had to close because of creatures getting loose?”

“Will you take me, Eda? Please?”

“No can do, kiddo. I hate zoos. I almost ended up in one, and not as a visitor. Can’t you just go with your friends?”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll just go with Gus and Willow.”

“Hey, guys!” Hooty called out. “You’ve got a visitor over here!”

“At this hour?” Eda said.

Ed came in.

“Hey, everyone,” he said.

“Where’s your sister?” Eda asked.

“Back at home.”

“Oh, you know for some reason I got it in my head that you were one of those sets of twins that does everything together, spends practically every waking moment together, but I should’ve known you weren’t like that. I mean, how weird are _those_ twins?”

“Yeah,” Ed grumbled.

"So, what brings you here, Ed?” Luz asked.

“Well, Mittens and I were going to go out tomorrow, and we thought you might want to join us.”

“And Em too, right?”

“No,” he replied a little testily. “Just the three of us.”

“Oh…” Luz looked confused. “OK, where would we be going?”

Ed still hadn’t thought about. “First, let me ask you this: what’s the place you’d most like to go?”

“Well, we were just talking about the zoo.”

“What a coincidence! That’s exactly where we were going to go!”

“Really? Great! I’d love to!”

“Quite the coincidence…” Eda said, stroking her chin. “Eh, whatever, I don’t care. You kids have fun tomorrow.”

Ed left the Owl House in good spirits. Things were all falling into place.


	8. A Trip to the Zoo

Ed and Amity waited for Luz to meet them at the market before heading to the zoo.

“Ed,” Amity said. “Please, just this once, don’t embarrass me in front of Luz, OK? Please?”

Ed smirked. Didn’t she realize that saying that only made him want to embarrass her more? He opened his mouth to say so, but then he noticed the painfully earnest look on her face.

“OK,” he said. “ _Just_ this once.” He ruffled her hair.

“Hey!” she said as she tried to fix her hair.

“What? You said, ‘in front of Luz.’ She isn’t here yet.”

“Amity!” It was Luz, as if on cue.

Amity looked away. “Oh, hi Luz.”

“Thanks for taking me to the zoo!”

“Sure, any time,” Ed said. “Ready to go, Mit– uh, Amity?”

He looked at Amity and saw that she was still looking away. Wow, just a couple days ago, before Grom, Amity had been acting completely normal around Luz.

“Well, let’s get going,” Ed said.

As they made their way to the zoo, Luz chattered on cheerfully, but Amity was completely silent. It looked to Ed like she wasn’t even walking normally. She was kind of stiff, and she seemed like she didn’t quite know what to do with her arms.

“So we did the whole Luz and King Comedy Hour, and then we found out Eda had cast a spell to make her deaf for the whole thing! Can you believe that?”

Amity just laughed nervously. Ed figured he’d better do something to try to bring his sister into the conversation. But he didn’t really know much about her. What would she feel most comfortable talking about?

“Hey, Luz,” he said. “How’s everything going at school?”

“Pretty good,” she said. “I’ve been making progress, but the one type of magic I haven’t been able to crack is abomination magic.”

“Oh?” Amity said. “Well, you know, maybe I could help you with that. I mean, as top student, it’s my duty. Maybe I could... come by the Owl House sometime and help out.”

“Oh, thanks, Amity, but I don’t know if you want to do that. The way I learn magic is so unpredictable. I mean, we might need to spend _hours_ and _hours_ together waiting for some symbol to reveal itself. I can’t ask you to do that.”

Amity blushed and looked away. “Well, if I’m going to be working on abominations anyway…”

Ed had to suppress a laugh.

Once they reached the zoo, the conversation turned to all the creatures on display. Ed found it funny how Luz was so amazed by some of the creatures that Boiling Isles natives took for granted. After all, what was so weird about a Chupacabra? Luz had told them about something called a platypus that sounded way weirder than that. Ed also noticed that Amity really wanted to linger by the otter exhibit. He wondered why.

“Hey, look!” Luz said. “Up next is the roc exhibit! I’ve heard of those!”

Ed shuddered. He still had bad memories from his last run-in with a roc. But at least this one would be safely behind a glass barrier.

The three went over to the exhibit and saw an absolutely mammoth bird looking away from them.

“Wow! It’s ginormous!” Luz said.

“Yeah,” Amity said. “This must be pretty new. I’ve never seen one before.”

Ed’s attention wasn’t on the roc but rather a distinctively shaped emerald in its enclosure.

“Huh, I remember it being bigger.”

“What?” Amity asked.

“Nothing, I just happen to… know that roc.”

“You know it?” Amity asked. “How?”

“It’s from when you were really little. I... may have tried to steal that emerald.”

“Whoa!” Luz said. “You’ve _got_ to tell us about that!”

“Maybe later,” Amity said. “Ed, we’d better get out of here.”

“Relax! I’m sure it doesn’t remember me after all these years."

At that moment, the roc turned around, and as soon as it laid eyes on Ed, it let out an ear-piercing shriek and flew over to the barrier, clawing at it.

“Ed, let’s get out of here,” Amity said.

“Relax! These zookeepers know what they’re doing. That barrier is unbreakable!”

At that moment, the roc banged its beak on the glass, and it cracked. The other visitors started fleeing.

“You know, maybe we _should_ get out of here,” Ed said, and the three of them started running.


	9. The Roc Attacks

Ed, Amity, and Luz ran for their lives. Then, they heard shattering glass and looked back to see that the roc had gotten free.

Ed felt his heart racing, and he told himself it was with excitement rather than fear, but he knew he’d be feeling a lot better if Em were with him. But he didn’t need her to get him out of messes like this, and he was about to prove it!

“So, you two having fun?” he joked. Em would’ve thought that was funny, but Amity wasn’t amused.

“That thing’s after me,” Ed said. “You two had better get away.”

Amity sighed and reluctantly said, “I can’t do that. But Luz, you should­– Luz?”

Without saying anything, Luz had started running back towards the beast.

“Is she trying to get out of danger?” Ed asked.

“Somehow, I doubt it,” Amity replied.

Luz drew a big ice glyph on the ground with her pencil and tapped on it, sending up a big tower of ice that the roc crashed into.

“Wow,” Ed said. “She’s incredible.”

“Yeah…” Amity said dreamily. “I mean, she’s… pretty brave… sometimes. Hey, Ed, make an illusion of yourself on that ice tower.”

“Good idea.”

Ed did as she said, and the roc clawed at the illusory figure, getting angrier and angrier that its claws were clutching nothing but air despite the evidence of its eyes.

“Well, that bought us some time,” Ed said.

“I’ve got an idea,” Amity said. “Ed, make an illusion of yourself run back to the enclosure. I’ll grab Luz.”

Ed did as Amity said while casting another illusion to distort his features enough that hopefully the roc wouldn’t recognize him.

The roc flew right back into its enclosure. Then, Ed saw Amity and Luz carrying a big banner advertising the roc exhibit but with an ice glyph drawn on it. Luz angled it so the ice would go right through the opening the roc had made to escape and then tapped on it. The ice closed up the opening while the roc was still clawing at the illusory Ed.

“We’d better get out of here before that thing figures out what’s going on,” Amity said, and the three of them rushed out.


	10. Ed and Amity Go Home

“Wow, Ed,” Luz said once they’d gotten to safety. “You really dealt with that thing when you were just a little kid?”

“Yeah. Well… I had Em with me then.”

“I’m sorry that my _brother_ got you into this mess, Luz,” Amity said.

“That’s OK! Everything turned out all right. And I still had a good time!”

Ed just sulked. He’d been so confident that he’d win Amity over from Em with this trip, but now she’d probably want to have nothing to do with him.

Ed didn’t say much until Luz started heading back to the Owl House and it was just the two of them again.

“Sorry, Mittens,” Ed said. “Things didn’t turn out like I’d planned.”

“Yeah,” Amity said. “But it’s not like you could’ve known this would happen. And it was nice of you to try. And even if it was dangerous, it was kind of... thrilling.”

What? Ed had expected her to chew him out. “You know, Mittens, you’ve been acting different lately.”

“Yeah, I guess some things have changed for me recently.”

“You mean ever since you became friends with Luz?”

Amity blushed. “Well, around the same time, yeah.”

After a pause, Amity said, “You kind of act differently too, when you’re not around Em.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know, I guess you’re kind of nicer.”

Ed looked away. “Oh. Yeah, I guess Em and I kind of egg each other on. Maybe we bring out the worst in each other.”

“Hey, it’s not just that. You guys can make a good team, too. What other pair could’ve handled that huge beast when they were just little kids?”

”You really think so?”

”Yeah.”

Ed smiled. “Maybe you’re right. You were pretty great yourself just now, though.”

“Thanks. So, why did you try to steal that emerald? Was it just because you wanted it?”

“No, there was more to it than that. But you’ll just think it’s dumb.”

“Come on, I think I have the right to know after what we just went through.”

“Well, I was going to give it to you.”

Amity looked at him, her eyes widened. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, it was silly. Mom was always going on about how the three of us had green hair and you didn’t, and somehow, I got it in my head that if you had something green, like us, she’d stop saying that. And then this group of elephants got involved...”

“Ed, I don't know what to say. How come you never told me about that?”

“I thought you’d just say it was dumb and irresponsible.”

“You really thought I'd say that? I mean, yeah, it was, but it’s also really sweet.” After a pause, she said, “It’s a lot different than how you acted after that.”

“Well, you were a lot cuter back then,”

She gave him a playful shove.

“Hey!”

They both laughed. Ed was astonished. Was this really the same Amity he'd known all these years? After the library incident, Ed and Em both agreed that they'd taken things too far and needed to make an effort to be nicer to her, but they still both thought that the main reason they weren't close to Amity was because of her own personality as opposed to how they acted. But now, Ed was wondering whether it was really as one-sided as they’d always believed.

Ed had picked up a little something for Amity, but he'd been hesitating to give it to her, thinking she'd scoff at it. It wasn't much compared to Em's gift the night before. But he figured he might as well give it a try. Ed took his little gift out of his pocket.

“Here, Mittens, it's not much, but I got this for you.”

Amity took it. “Ed, you got the emerald?!”

Ed sighed. “No, it’s just a rock I picked up. I cast a spell to make it look like the emerald. I don’t know if you want it–”

To his surprise, Amity hugged him. “I love it Ed. I really do.”

“Really?” Ed said. Then he looked looked to the side. “So… do you like it better than that book Em gave you?”

Amity laughed. “Let’s say it’s even. It was really nice of Em though. I don’t know how she had the money. Neither of you are big savers.”

“Oh, she probably just snagged a few snails from Mom’s purse.”

Amity turned her head abruptly in his direction. “What?”

“Yeah, we do it all the time.”

Amity looked away and frowned. “Oh,” she said.

Ed was confused. Amity seemed disappointed. Then he realized what the problem was. How could he have been such a dope?

“Oh, Mittens, I’m so sorry! We should’ve taught you how to steal from Mom’s purse a long time ago!”

“What?”

“We were just worried you’d tattle on us. But now I know you wouldn’t do that. See, the trick is to check to make sure there are a lot of loose snails in there, and then only take a few. And we’ve got to check with each other to make sure none of us do it on the same day.”

“No, Ed, I’m not going to do that.”

“Are you sure? If anyone deserves a few extra snails from Mom, it’s you.”

“No,” she said firmly. "Besides, I'd probably just get caught."

Amity was quiet for a while. Finally, she asked, “Ed, why are you and Em spending so much time apart all of a sudden?”

“Oh, Em didn’t tell you about the bet?”

“What bet?”

“We made a bet: which of us can stand staying apart from the other the longest. I’m totally going to win.”

At that point, they’d reached Blight Manor. Ed went to open the front door, but Amity stayed back.

“Come on, let’s go,” Ed said.

“Actually, I’m going to walk around for a bit. I’ll come in soon.”

Ed studied his little sister for a moment. Did she seem a little down? No, she was probably just a little tired. The past few days had been pretty eventful for her, after all. 

“OK, if you want,” Ed said before opening the door and stepping into the Blight home, happy that he’d ended up showing Amity a great day after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to [crossoverlover232](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossoverlover232/pseuds/crossoverlover232) for giving me the idea that Ed wanted to steal the emerald to give to little Amity.


	11. The Blights Fight

Em was in the living room when Ed walked in.

“I had a great time today with _my_ friends,” Em said.

That wasn’t entirely true. She’d missed Ed, but she obviously wasn’t going to tell him that.

“They must’ve gotten sick of you,” Em continued, “and canceled on you to hang out with the fun twin.”

Ed laughed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. _I_ canceled on _them_.”

“What? Why would you do that?”

“Where do you think Mittens has been all day?”

“Well… doing homework. Or reading the book _I_ gave her.”

“Nope. We were out all day. With Luz.”

“What?!”

Ed hadn't been the only one to notice how Amity had been acting around Luz at Grom. Em felt like kicking herself. Why hadn’t she thought of bringing Luz along? How was she letting Ed continually one-up her?

“And by the way,” Ed said. “We got in a little trouble at the zoo, and Mittens solved everything herself. It’s no surprise. I mean, she was always way more responsible than you, even though she’s younger.”

“Are you seriously trying to make me jealous at the thought of Mittens being better able to take care of you than I can? Let’s see how many scrapes she has to get you out of before she finally gets sick of it.”

“Whatever. Mittens and I had a life-changing experience with the person she most wants to be around. But I’m sure the bookstore was fun too. Ooh, was there a sale on paperbacks?” With that, Ed left, chuckling.

Em clenched her fists. She’d never realized how annoying Ed could be when they were working at cross-purposes rather than together.

Wait, was she that annoying to other people too?

Em shook it off and went to her room.

* * *

Em was trying to pass the time on her scroll when she heard a knock at her door.

“Emira?” It was Amity.

“Come in, it's open!” Em said enthusiastically.

Amity walked in holding her copy of The Gecko Sonata at her side, and immediately Em noticed that she didn’t look happy. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course, anything!”

She brought up her copy of The Gecko Sonata to her chest. “Did you buy this book with money you stole from Mom’s purse?”

Em felt her heart speed up. She averted her eyes. “Uh… yeah…”

“Oh.”

Neither said anything for a few moments. Em hoped Amity would just be a little disappointed in her and that would be that. It was an odd feeling. Em wasn’t used to worrying about upsetting Amity. Normally, she and Ed set out to do that.

Wow, now that Em thought of it, that sounded really bad, didn't it?

“One other thing, Em. Ed told me about the bet you guys have.”

Em felt like she couldn’t breathe. “Oh… I didn’t mention that yesterday?” She laughed nervously.

“No. So, you were just spending time with me as a last resort.”

“No!” Em insisted. Then she thought about that. Yeah, that _had_ been the case, hadn’t it?

“Hey, Mittens why don’t we do something else tomorrow! Anything you want! And we can bring Luz!”

“No,” Amity said.

“Why not? Didn’t we have fun yesterday?”

“Because I don’t want to be a pawn in some game between you and Ed! And I don’t want Luz to be one either.”

“Are you mad at Ed too?”

“That’s what you care about?!”

“Um… no...”

“You know what, at least Ed was honest.”

“I was honest! The bet just… never came up.”

Amity just rolled her eyes.

“Come on, Mittens, what’s the big deal? We had a fun time, didn’t we! Can’t you just focus on that instead of looking to make a problem out of everything?”

Amity didn’t say anything for a few moments.

“Em, do you still have the receipt for this book?”

Em couldn’t speak for a moment. “W-why?”

Amity placed the book down on Em’s desk. “You should return it. I don’t want it.”

Em jumped up and grabbed the book from her desk, holding it out to Amity. “Come on, Mittens, keep the book. You can be mad at me, but just keep the book.”

“I’m not mad. I just don’t want it now.”

Amity walked out.

Em stood at her doorway and yelled out, “You know what, Amity, it’s no wonder you were always lonely before! If you keep pushing people away for every little thing, you’re just going to always end up alone!”

Amity turned back as if to say something, then changed her mind and ran off to her room.

Em slammed her door shut. Why was she so upset? Why should she care what Amity thought? It wasn’t like they were close. So what if they'd had one fun day together? And now she could return that expensive book her ungrateful little sister had given back to her and buy something fun with all that money. There was no reason she should feel bad.

But as much as Em told herself that, she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe it.

* * *

After stewing for a few minutes, Em turned her frustrations on a new target: Ed. Why couldn’t he just keep his big mouth shut?

Em rushed to Ed’s room and threw open his door, which wasn’t locked, without knocking.

Ed was on his scroll. “Ready to give up?” he asked. Then he looked up and saw how angry Em was.

“Why did you tell Mittens about the bet?”

“The bet? I don’t know, it came up. Since when is it a secret?”

“Well now she’s mad at me! And you told her about taking snails from Mom’s purse too?”

“What? She’s not going to tattle.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about! She’s angry about that, too.”

“Why?”

“Because she cares about rules, Ed! You really thought she wouldn’t have a problem with that?"

"Yeah, I mean, she's really loosened up."

"Not _that_ much! So, are you happy now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Now that you’ve driven a wedge between me and Mittens.”

“Hey, if you hadn’t tried to hide the bet from her, this wouldn’t have happened. And I didn't do it on purpose.”

“Oh, sure you didn’t. But things just so happened to work out awfully well, for you, didn’t they? Now, I’m completely isolated!”

“I never set out to isolate you, OK?” Ed looked askance. “I just... didn’t want to be alone.”

Em look askance herself. “Well… neither did I.”

They stood in silence for a moment.

“Hey, Mittens will get over it before too long,” Ed said. “And I’ll cancel on my– on _our_ friends for tomorrow so you can hang out with them.”

“Really?” Em looked at Ed and gave him a small smile. “Thanks, Ed.”

“It’s nothing,” Ed said.

Then, as Em was about to turn around and walk out, Ed continued. “Of course, if I do that, then that means I win the bet, right?”

Em’s eyes widened, and she gave Ed a furious look that sent a chill down his spine. “Then forget it!” She turned around and slammed the door.


	12. Amity Thinks Things Over

Amity was in her room trying to focus on her textbook. Really, there was no reason for her to be upset. It’s not like she’d been harboring some deep desire to be closer to her siblings. After all, when they’d started acting all cloying after the library incident, hadn’t she been annoyed, only putting up with it because they were helping her train for the Hexside entrance exam?

Well, that’s how she’d acted, anyway. And if that’s how she’d reacted to them being nice to her for once, could she really be surprised that they wouldn’t do it again except under unusual circumstances like these?

She looked at the rock Ed had given her. Once she’d found out that the reason Ed had gone to the zoo with her was just because he had no other options, she’d almost left it outside before coming back into the house. But she’d ended up keeping it. It was a nice gesture, and like she’d said to Em, at least he’d been honest.

She heard a knock on the door.

“Hey, Mittens, can I come in?” It was Ed.

“I’m studying,” she said.

“It’ll just take a minute.”

“No.” _It’s not like I’m the one you really want to talk to anyway_ , she thought, though she’d never say that.

“Fine, I’ll just say this through the door. I didn’t realize you didn’t know about the bet or that you’d get so upset when you found out about it.”

“I’m not upset.”

“OK, but I just wanted to say that bet or no bet, I’m really glad we spent the day together.”

“I told you, I’m not upset.”

“All right, if you say so.”

Ed paused for a few moments. “Also, do you think you could maybe go easy on Em?”

“I think I did,” she replied.

“Come on, if it makes any difference, she’s really sad that you’re angry with her.”

Amity looked up from her textbook. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

Amity considered. “Ed, can you just give me a little time alone to think?”

“OK,” he said.

She heard his footsteps as he walked away.

Amity thought about Em. Even if she’d only wanted to spend time with her because she had no other options, she didn’t need to buy her a copy of The Gecko Sonata. Even if the money she’d used had been ill-gotten, it was a nice gesture. And was she right when she’d said that about her pushing people away?

Amity looked at the stone Ed had given her again and put it in the box where she kept various keepsakes. Her Grom tiara was in there. Looking at it, she thought about what Em had said about how Grom didn’t have to end as long as she kept spending time with the people who’d made it so special. And who were those people? Willow and Gus, and most of all Luz. And hadn’t she been pretty terrible to all of them? If Luz could forgive her, and Willow was at least willing to entertain the possibility of forgiving her, then shouldn’t she be a little more forgiving herself?

Besides, was she even really angry at her sister? Or was she just disappointed that she hadn’t really wanted to spend time with her?

Then she heard a knock on the door.

“Amity?” It was Em. “You don’t need to open the door. I just wanted to say, maybe I did want to take you to the bookstore because I couldn’t spend time with Ed or anyone else. But I really did have a good time with you, and I really did want to get closer to you after that.”

After a pause, Em continued. “I’m going to buy you The Gecko Sonata with my own money, OK? It just might take me a while. You don’t have to forgive me. I just want to do it.”

Amity heard her start to walk away and went to her bedroom door to open it.

“Hey, Em?”

Em turned around. “Yeah?”

“Well, it just seems a little silly for you to save up money to buy a book when we already have a copy. So, maybe it makes more sense if I just keep that one.”

Em smiled broadly. “Really!” Then her brow furrowed. “Wait, does this mean you’re not angry, or do you just really want to read the book?”

Amity laughed, in spite of herself. “I’m not angry.”

Em ran over and gave Amity a hug, which made her groan.

“Thanks, Mittens! Let me go get the book from my room.”

As Em turned around, Amity said, “Em, you should know that Ed came over and told me I should go easy on you.”

Em turned back around. “Really? That’s… that’s nice of him.”

“Why don’t you two just call off this silly bet? I can tell you miss each other.”

“I don’t miss him!”

“Oh please, Em! It’s obvious you do. And he misses you too. I could tell today.”

“Really?” Em looked down at the floor. “If he were willing to call it a draw, maybe I’d be willing to accept that. Do you… do you think you could ask him?”

“No way! I’m not getting in the middle of this.”

“Please?”

“No!”

Em sighed. “OK, I guess I can’t blame you.”

* * *

After Em gave the book back to Amity, she sat in her room thinking about how just minutes ago she’d told Amity that she pushed people away and would always end up alone because of it. But wasn’t that what she and Ed were doing to each other in a slightly different way? It had only taken a few minutes and a gesture of good will for Amity to forgive her. Really, her little sister was acting more mature than she was right now.

And if all Ed cared about was winning this bet, he wouldn’t have asked Amity to go easy on her.

Em got up to go to Ed’s room.

* * *

Ed played around on his scroll thinking about Amity and Em. He figured Amity needed some space, but she didn’t seem _too_ mad at him, at least. And hopefully she’d forgive Em before too long.

Ed had never expected this bet to cause so much conflict. He wished they could just call it a draw. If Em came and offered that to him, he’d accept it. But he couldn’t be the one to make the first move, not after she’d said that about being stuck with him forever.

Ed heard a knock followed shortly by Em opening the door.

“Ed?”

“Yeah?”

“Mittens and I made up.”

“Oh.” That was fast. His little sister really had changed. “Good.”

“She told me you asked her to go easy on me.”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that. I mean, with the bet and all.”

“Well, the bet didn’t seem that important right then.”

“Anyway, that made me think...”

“Yeah?”

“Regarding the bet...”

“Yeah?”

“Well... I... I guess I owe you some kind of favor. Like you get the first chance to make plans with our friends next week.”

“Oh.” Ed tried to hide his disappointment. “Yeah, that seems fair.”

Em hesitated but then said, “OK. Well, I guess I’d better go. We’re already stretching the rules a little.”

“Yeah.” Ed said

Ed watched as Em lingered for a second and then closed the door.


	13. Separation Anxiety

A few days later, at Hexside, Amity was walking through the halls when she spotted her reflection in a particularly shiny locker. She couldn’t help but notice an uncharacteristic slouch and dark circles under her eyes.

Then she spotted Amelia, a green-haired witch who, though she hung around with Boscha and the gang, didn’t have her mean-streak, or at least didn’t when she was on her own.

“Hey, Amity,” she said. “I didn’t see you at Skara’s party.”

“That’s a long story.’

“Are you OK? You look… uh, I mean, you look great! Better than usual! Uh, not that you don’t usually look great!”

“It’s OK, Amelia, you can say I look tired. I am. Ed and Em have this cockamamie bet going on where they have to stay apart from each other, which means whenever they’re bored or lonely, they turn to me.”

“Oh, I can imagine that could be tough. But you used to talk about how… strained things were between you and the twins. Isn’t this kind of a good thing?”

“Well… I don’t know, maybe it is kind of nice in some ways. But it’s only temporary. Whenever this bet finally ends, things will go back to normal.”

Amity sighed. Then, when she realized that she’d sighed, she tacked on, “Which will be a relief, not having them always bothering me anymore.”

“Uh huh,” Amelia said, raising an eyebrow.

Then, Amity heard two voices from opposite ends of the hallway say “Mittens!”

Ed and Em spied each other from across the hallway and raced each other to their little sister’s side, getting there at the same time.

“Hey Mittens,” Ed said. “How’d you like to take a boat onto the lake tonight and wrestle octopuses?”

“Don’t be silly!” Em said. “She’s going to be coming out with me! There’s a sale at the shoe store, and I hear they have a pair that’ll try to eat someone’s feet if you can get them to put them on!”

Ed grabbed Amity’s left arm. “Come on, Mittens, you’d rather come with me, right?”

Em grabbed her right arm. “No, she’d rather come with me!”

“Uh… I think I’m going head to class,” Amelia said. “Amity, good… luck?”

“We can look for shells by the lake!” Ed said as each twin pulled one of their sister’s arms.

“I bet Luz would like to get a pair of winged shoes, or maybe some seven-league boots!”

“No, Luz, would rather go to the lake! With three of us, that’s twelve limbs to eight! And that’s not counting tongues!”

“Guys, stop!” Amity yelled out. She pulled her arms away from them. “I can’t keep dropping everything every time one of you wants some company! And I’m way behind on my work. I’m going to head to the library after school where I can study in peace. Don’t you both have other friends?”

Amity walked off.

Ed and Em glowered at each other and went their separate ways. They took out their scrolls, but their friends all told them that they needed to study or had some other commitment or just wanted some time alone.

* * *

At the illusion homeroom, Ed and Em practiced sullenly without looking in each other’s direction. Then, Keeko came over.

“You two both look miserable.”

“We’re not,” they both spat out.

“Maybe you’ve taken this too far? I told you that you spend too much time together. I never said you should spend _all_ your time apart.”

Ed and Em just stayed silent.

Keeko sighed. “Hey, I tried. Just don’t blame me for this.”

Ed and Em looked at each other, hoping the other would offer to call the bet a draw. But, of course, neither did.

Then, class ended. Em sighed and pulled out a snail from her pocket to flip it. “You win.”

“Great,” Ed said gloomily as he walked off to head home. 


	14. Ed Takes Flight

As Ed walked home, he realized that something needed to change. He thought about it. Maybe if he had some kind of project to distract himself, that would do the trick. But what?

Then, he realized what it should be. It was an idea he'd had about a year ago, but Em had talked him out of it, saying it was too impractical. So what better time to explore it again than now? Suddenly, Ed had a new spring in his step and rushed home to get started.

* * *

Em waited a few minutes before leaving school, but then instead of going home, she walked around a bit. She figured if she was going to be bored and lonely, she might as well have a change of scenery. She walked for a couple hours before finally heading home, and by the time she got there, she saw Ed diligently at work on the front lawn with all kinds of tools and various bits and pieces of wood and metal.

"Ed, what is all this?" she asked.

"I've decided to pursue my business idea."

"There’s no way you can teach a manticore to ice-skate!"

"Not that! My training staff idea."

Em remembered now. Normally, a witch had to train for years and years before they could make a staff, and to do it, they needed to use a special type of wood, which was getting harder and harder to come by. So, Ed had come up with the idea to make a training staff, like a training wand, that you could magically charge and use like a proper staff.

"You really think you're going to get that to work? Hey!" She pointed to a stuffed animal taped to the head of a piece of wood. "That's my old stuffed jackalope!"

"It's a palisman... sort of."

"There's no way you're going to make a real staff that way."

"Well, I've narrowed it down to just flying."

Em opened her mouth to naysay again, but then she thought about it: that wasn't such a bad idea.

Ed went on. "Guess who else thinks it's a good idea: Mom. She was here when I got back."

"What? You're making that up."

"Ask her yourself. She left for a meeting, but she'll be back in a few hours. By then, I'll have a working prototype. And she said that's all she needs to see... before she invests."

"What?!" Was their mom really considering investing in Ed's idea? She wasn't exactly one to indulge her children's flights of fancy. If she was considering investing, that meant she really thought it was a good idea. And not only had she missed out on the chance to do this with him, if they hadn't been separated from each other, he would've never even pursued it.

As if reading her mind, Ed said, "You know, Em, you said that you always had to keep me from getting out of my depth, but really you've just been holding me back. My life's a lot better without you."

Em gasped. "Ed, do you really mean that?"

Ed looked at his twin. Was she hurt by what he’d said? He hadn't meant to do that. Maybe he'd gone too far. But now that he'd said it, how could he take it back? Besides, she'd said worse to him without him acting all aggrieved about it.

"Well... uh... I mean... in some ways." He averted his eyes.

Em's lip quivered for a second, but then she glared and yelled out, "Well, me too! These past few days have been the best of my life!" She stormed off into the house.

* * *

Em rushed to her room and slammed her door shut. That jerk! Did he really mean that? But then she thought about it, and was what he'd said really all that worse than what she'd said at the very start of this bet?

Even after what he'd said, Em just wanted this bet to be over. And for that to happen, at some point one of them was going to have to swallow their pride and reach out to the other. But why should it have to be her?

Well, why _shouldn't_ it have to be her?

Fine. It was time to end this thing. But she couldn't do it right then. Not after what Ed had just said. She'd wait, maybe give him some time to work on the prototype until he was frustrated and ready to do something else.

* * *

Ed tried to keep his mind off of things by focusing on the work. But who was he kidding? He had no interest in inventing or going into business, at least not on his own. He'd only proposed the idea back then because he thought it would be a fun thing he and Em could do together.

The whole bet, he'd been sore about Em saying she only stayed with him to keep him out of anything too dangerous and that she didn't want to get stuck with him, and for that reason he'd refused to make the first move in calling things off. But now he'd said something just as bad to Em, if not worse. Maybe it was time for him to make the first move, and also apologize for what he’d just said. But would she even accept a draw after what had happened just now? Maybe he'd give her some time to cool off first. But after he got his prototype working, he was going to end this silly thing once and for all.

A few hours later, Ed had gotten his contraption in working order. It was basically a rod of wood, like a staff, but with a few extra knobs and levers for speed and steering, and it was all powered by Amity's old training wand. He got on it and started it up.

The staff began to hover. Yes! It worked! It actually worked!

Ed started going forward slowly, and so far everything was running smoothly. He cautiously tested turning around and going up and down. So far, so good. Ed slowly started to speed up, and it was sheer exhilaration! He started to laugh.

* * *

Em heard Ed laughing from in her room, which meant he must've been laughing uproariously. She opened her window so she could hear him more clearly and saw him zipping around on his prototype.

He'd done it! He'd actually done it!

Boy, it looked like he was having fun. Em wished she could give flying that thing a try. She was proud of her brother, but also sad. What if she really had been holding him back all this time? And why would he accept a draw now? What if he said no, and demanded that she say she lost the bet? Could she accept that? Maybe she could.

* * *

After a few minutes, the exhilaration of flying started to get mitigated by regret. Ed realized this should’ve been his moment of triumph. He’d accomplished something all on his own. At the beginning of this bet, he probably would’ve rubbed this in Em’s face, but he’d lost any desire to do that.

Ed couldn't help but wish Em could give flying this a try. She'd love it. Well, she’d get the chance soon enough once he ended this bet. But what if she refused a draw after what he’d said? Could he accept that? Maybe he could.

Ed figured he’d been flying for a while now, and it was probably time to bring the thing down. He pulled on the knob that controlled the acceleration. Except, it wouldn't budge. It was stuck!

"Come on, you stupid thing," he said as he fiddled with it. But as he tried to pull it out, all he did was push it in further making him accelerate more and more.

Uh oh.


	15. Ed and Em Reunite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This is the last chapter of this story, but I also included some other things I've written about the Blight siblings in the next chapters that I thought the people who liked this story would enjoy, including the beginning of a possible sequel.

Ed looked up from the knob to see that he'd reached the edge of the Blight estate and had nearly hit the fence! He turned the staff around, but soon he was on a path to run straight into the house! He brought the staff up and narrowly missed it, although the tail of the staff hit the roof, sending shingles flying onto the lawn.

Ed looked around frantically. At the speed he was going, and with no way to slow down, he couldn't just jump off. What if he tried using friction to slow himself down? He went down to the lawn low enough that the tail was touching the ground, digging grooves into the well-kept grass. But that barely slowed him down at all before he almost ran into another fence. He yelped as he narrowly avoided it.

Em heard the yelp and ran back to her window, where she saw Ed flying around wildly and yelling. She'd been right! But that was little comfort now. Why hadn't she been there to at least check his work? What if because of this silly bet Ed got hurt, or worse, got... she didn't even want to think about it!

"Ed!" she yelled out, but he didn't seem to hear her. She ran outside.

"Ed!"

"Em?"

Em saw the panicked look on her brother’s face.

"Get out of here!" Ed said. "This thing’s hard to control!"

As if to prove the point, Ed flew dangerously close to Em, so close that she could feel the breeze from his motion. Then, on impulse, Em used her magic to tie a string to the tail of the staff and held on to the other end. The string had enough elasticity that she met the staff's speed quickly but gradually rather than having her arms ripped out of their sockets. She quickly shortened the string until she was on the staff with Ed.

"Em, what are you doing!"

"I don't know! It seemed like a good idea at the time!"

Now Ed felt terrible! He'd put Em in danger, and he wasn't sure how they'd get out of it.

But then, the twins' eyes met, and despite all the danger, they broke out into big grins. Finally, they were together again! It felt good, really good. And together they'd gotten out of worse situations than this!

"Whoa!" Ed said as he narrowly missed a shed.

Granted, this was up there.

"Ed, what if we tried tying strings to things to slow this thing down?"

"I tried. No good. All it did was almost throw me off the staff. And if I tie one to myself, it’s liable to send me crashing into whatever I tie it to or just cut me in two.”

"You know any other spells that could get us out of this?"

"Don't you think I would've tried them if I did? How about you?"

"Why would I ask you if I knew any? OK, how high can this thing go?"

"No idea."

"Let's get this thing up so we don't-"

At that moment, Ed narrowly dodged a tree.

"So we don't keep almost running into things," Em finished.

"The problem is, this thing is powered by the training wand, and once the charge runs out..."

Em saw the issue. "I don't suppose you thought to put a parachute in this thing."

"I did."

"Really?" Em was impressed.

"Yeah, it's right there."

Ed pointed to a tree festooned with tattered bits of cloth and string.

Em groaned.

"OK, if we could just get a big piece of cloth...” Em looked around. “Ed, behind us!"

Ed looked over his shoulder.

"No, I meant turn the broom around!"

"Oh, right." Ed snapped his head forward just in time to see that they were about to hit another tree, which he lurched to the left to avoid. Then he turned around and saw what Em had been talking about.

It was their neighbor, Mrs. Frobisher. Well, given the size of the Blight estate, "neighbor" might've been generous, but at the speed they were going, her house suddenly seemed very close. And she was outside, hanging her laundry to dry.

They sped over to her and grabbed some sheets and blankets.

"Sorry!"

"It's an emergency!"

"We'll bring it back!"

They'd already traveled so far that they couldn't make out what she was saying, but she was jumping up and down angrily. They both chuckled.

"OK, ready to head up?" Ed asked.

"More or less."

Ed aimed the staff upward and as best as he could directly over Blight Manor. As they soared higher and higher, feeling the wind on their face and no longer having to worry about hitting anything, they started laughing hysterically. This was amazing!

The training wand finally ran out of charge, and they kept going up but started to slow down.

Then, at the apex of trajectory, for one instant, they were completely still and felt weightless. They looked down and could see all of Bonesborough and beyond. It was incredible!

They both looked at each other and said, in unison, "I wish Mittens could see this."

Wow, had either of them ever said that before when they were with each other?

As their descent began, they unfurled the sheets and blankets to use like a makeshift parachute. As they glided serenely down, they looked at everything tiny on the ground below them slowly getting larger and started to laugh again. But then, Ed suddenly frowned.

“Thanks, Em,” Ed said. “You know I didn’t mean what I said about being better off without you, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” Em said. And she always had, though it felt good to hear it.

Ed sighed. "I guess you were right after all. All this time you've been keeping me out of danger. But I won't ask you to do that anymore. From now on, I'll take care of myself and stop forcing you to do it."

"No, Ed! That's not true! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been in danger just now, but I also wouldn’t have seen all this! The truth is, I've been miserable this whole time."

Ed looked at her. "Really?"

"Of course! Wasn’t it obvious?”

Yeah, it had been. But for Ed, it felt good to hear that too.

Em went on. “No matter what I said before, I spend time with you because I like it."

Ed smiled. Then, Em blurted out, "But I still won the bet!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Em considered it, and then said, "But... cutting class without you while you're stuck taking notes... it doesn't sound that much fun now that I think about it. So, maybe we could forget about that part."

Ed smiled. “Really? Thanks, Em.”

Em hesitated for a moment but then said, “Ed, I know you said you didn’t mean that about me holding you back, but you did something pretty great today, and you never would’ve done it if we hadn’t been separated...”

“Em, you can’t be serious! Look at what I got myself into without you! You really think I could come away from this thinking you’ve held me back?”

Em brightened. “Yeah. Still, you showed it was a good idea. Maybe... maybe with another set of eyes you could work out the kinks.”

Ed smiled. “Yeah, that sounds nice. But maybe not right away. I wouldn’t mind keeping my feet on the ground for a while.”

Em laughed. “Yeah, maybe for just a bit.”

“You know what, Em? Who cares if we spend a lot of time together? I like it!”

"Me too! And if anyone has a problem with that, we don't need them."

"Yeah!"

They both looked at each other and grinned. Then, Em looked down. "Uh, Ed? Is it just me, or are we starting to fall a little fast?"

Ed looked down, and Blight manor _was_ getting larger at a rate that was a bit alarming.

"Em, I think our best bet is to aim for the tree."

"Oh, great."

"Hey, a few scratches never hurt anybody."

They aimed for the tallest tree in the front yard and hit it, each branch slowing their descent _fairly_ painlessly, at least given the alternative, until they both landed on the ground with a thud. Then, once they'd both fully internalized that they were finally safely on the ground again, they laughed and hugged each other.

"What happened here?"

They turned around. It was Amity, who must've just gotten back from the library.

"It's a long story," Ed said. "But the bet's over!”

" _I_ won!” Em clarified.

“Yeah, yeah...”

"Oh," Amity said. "So... I guess everything's back to normal."

She started walking towards the house.

"That's good," she said facing away from them and with her head downturned.

Ed and Em looked at each other.

"Hey, Mittens," Ed said. "How'd you like to go out with us?"

"Yeah!" Em said. "All three of us!"

Amity turned around. "Really? Are you sure?”

“Yeah!” they both said.

Amity smiled, but then she looked down again. "But, I really do need to study. I would, but I just can’t. You guys go ahead.”

Amity turned around as Ed and Em looked at each other again.

"You know what?” Em said. "I think I've had more than enough excitement for one day.“

"Yeah," Ed said. "I think I could use a quiet day at home."

"And even we need to do our homework at some point," Em said. “So we might as well do it with you.”

Amity turned around. “You guys don’t have to do that.”

“We want to!” Em said.

“Honest!” Ed added.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah!” the twins said together.

Amity smiled. “Thanks, guys. That sounds really nice.”

The three of them went into the house. Then, just as they closed the front door, they heard a shriek from outside. It was their mother.

"What‘s happened to the lawn?!"

The three of them looked at each other fearfully.

"On second thought," Amity said. "Maybe we _could_ go out for a few hours."

Ed and Em nodded, and together the three Blight siblings ran to the back door as fast as they could.


	16. Extra: Edric's Bright Idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who read this story! I wrote another story about the Blight siblings that I thought the people who liked this might enjoy, although it's more serious. I put the beginning of it here, and you can read the rest of it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26958532).

Ed sat down for dinner and saw that Amity was already there looking glum. She’d been looking that way a lot since her birthday party. Ed and Em hadn’t been there, but they’d gathered after the fact that Amity had been forced by their parents to send her best friend Willow away. Permanently.

At first, he and Em been disappointed in their little sister. They never would've let their parents make them do something like that even at her age.

But after talking it over, they realized that they were being unfair to Amity. They’d never been _asked_ to do something like that in the first place. And if they had, they would’ve had each other for support, whereas Amity had been alone. Maybe if they’d stayed at the party rather than just wishing Amity a happy birthday and giving her a present beforehand, things would’ve gone differently. But it's not like they could've known what was going to happen, right? And why would they want to stay at a party with a bunch of little kids?

With their dad away on business and Em in bed with some kind of stomach virus, Ed and Amity only had to wait for their mom, who was out late working.

“Hello, children,” they heard their mother call out as she made her way to the dining room. Once she got there, she lingered over Ed and tousled his hair.

“Such lovely hair, Edric,” she said. “Such a lovely color.”

Amity’s head sank even further. Ed had heard their mother compliment Amity’s hair a few times, but never its color. And lately she’d taken to complimenting Ed’s and Em’s hair, and specifically its color, every chance she got, and always in front of Amity. His little sister had clearly picked up on it. And each time their mother did it, it made her a little bit more visibly upset.

Ed wanted to tell their mom to stop, but what could he say, “I want you to stop complimenting me”?

Their mom sat down. “You know, Amity, I’ve been thinking of how mature and responsible you’ve gotten.”

Amity looked up. “Really?”

“Yes! Absolutely. In fact, I think you’re old enough to make some more choices of your own.”

What was she talking about? She didn’t even let Amity choose her own friends!

“For example, you could make some more choices about your appearance. Like picking out some more of your own clothes. Within reason, of course.”

“Really?” Amity said, starting to smile. Their mother was very particular about her clothing.

“In fact, I was just thinking, you’ve gotten so mature that there are certain things I’d let you do that I _never_ would have let your older siblings do at your age.”

“Really?!” Amity said, bouncing in her chair. Her mother rarely compared her favorably to them.

“Yes! For example, if you came to me and said you wanted to… oh, I don’t know, dye your hair, for example, I would even let you do that!”

“Oh,” Amity said, her voice quivering. All the excitement she’d just been showing vanished in a flash.

“I never would’ve let your siblings do that at your age.”

As he looked at his sister’s face at that moment, Ed clenched his fist under the table without even realizing it.

“I think your hair looks great,” Ed said.

“Well, who said it didn’t, Edric?” their mom said. “I was only bringing up dyeing her hair as an example.”

Amity was staring at the table and blinking rapidly. Were her eyes glistening a little?

“Mom,” she said after a few moments of silence. “Actually… I-I _have_ been… thinking about what it would be like if I dyed my hair… now that you mention it.”

Ed gasped. What was she saying?

“Oh?” their mom said. “What color?”

Ed almost rolled his eyes. As if she didn’t know.

“Well, I was thinking about dyeing it green. Like you and Ed and Em.”

“Oh? Well, I think that would look just lovely on you, Amity. And we’d all match! Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Now, Amity was clearly on the verge of tears.

“Y-you’d better take some time to think this over,” Ed said. “It’s a big decision.”

“Oh, Edric, don’t be so dramatic,” their mom said. “Hair dye can be reversed easily. Of course, it’s _your_ choice, dear. Do _you_ want to dye your hair?”

Amity started to sniffle. Ed wished she’d start crying. Then their mom wouldn’t be able to keep pretending that she wasn’t picking up on her daughter’s distress, and maybe she’d back off. But Amity kept it together.

“I want to do it,” Amity managed to get out.

“Well, if that’s what _you_ want, then I think it’s a great idea!”

“Amity, I think your hair looks good the way it is,” Ed said. “And wouldn’t it be boring for all of us to match?”

“Now, Edric, your sister has made a decision. She has a right to decide how she wants to look.”

 _But it wasn’t her decision!_ Ed wanted to yell out. Not really, anyway. It was so obvious that she didn’t want to do this! But if Amity wouldn’t say that, what could he say?

“Mom,” Amity said. “I… I’m not hungry. Could I please go to my room?”

“Oh of course, darling. I hope you didn’t catch whatever it is your sister has.”

Amity ran off to her room, and Ed guessed that she was going to be crying as soon she got there. He felt terrible for her, and furious at his mom. But he knew blowing up at her wouldn’t accomplish anything.

“Mom,” he said. “Amity seemed really scared about dyeing her hair, didn’t she?”

“Well, Edric, trying new things is often scary, but that’s how we grow. Your sister made a decision, and I expect you and Emira to support her completely.”

“But…”

“But what?”

Ed didn’t know what to say. He sighed. “Nothing, I guess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! You can read the rest of this story [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26958532).


	17. The Blights Stick Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this story! I started [another story about the Blight siblings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27492373/chapters/67224118) where Ed and Em decide to spend all their time with Amity the way they do with each other, so kind of the opposite of this one. It can act as a sequel to this story, but I wasn't sure whether to put it into a series because I wrote it so it could also be read on its own as well, so I thought I'd put the first two chapters here but edited a little bit to act more directly as a sequel.

Ed, Em, and Amity, still avoiding going home and facing their mother, had just finished watching a street performer and his trained pixies.

“That was so lame,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Amity agreed. “I’ve seen even Boscha’s pixies do better tricks than that, and she’s the _worst_ at training them.”

“He’d be better off just using them for the dust,” Em said.

It had been while since the three of them had been out together just to have fun. Although none of them were completely at ease, with Ed and Em worried about the punishment that faced them at home and Amity unable to stop thinking in the back of her mind that she really should’ve been spending this time studying, all three of them were thinking about how nice it was.

It was Em who first said that aloud. “This is nice, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” Ed said. “We should do this more often from now on.”

Amity didn't put much stock into what Ed had just said. It had been a nice gesture on their part to include her even though the bet had ended, but she figured that it wouldn’t be long before the twins went back to spending all their time with just each other. And she wasn't willing to admit to them that after the events of the past few days she actually kind of wanted to spend more time with them. But she could at least enjoy that night. And it's not like she needed their company anyway.

“Yeah, it's nice,” Amity said. “You know, I’m really glad things aren’t so messed up between us anymore the way they were before the library incident.”

Amity had said that casually, and her tone made it clear that she’d meant that as a positive comment, but Ed and Em were a bit taken aback by it.

“Come on,” Em said after a moment. “Things weren’t _that_ bad between us.”

“What?” Amity said. She opened her mouth to say more, but then closed it, shook her head, and said, “Never mind, forget it.”

Ed and Em looked at each other again, neither of them sure what to say next. But the awkward moment was interrupted when Amity pointed and said, “Hey, look, it’s Principal Bump.”

Ed and Em instinctively took that as an invitation to get out of sight, but after walking a few steps, they realized that Amity had gone in the other direction.

“Is she actually going over to say hello to him?” Ed said.

“I don’t know,” Em said. “Who can figure her out? We were having such a nice time. Why did she have to say all that weird stuff about things being messed up between us?”

“Well… they kind of were, weren’t they?” Ed said.

Em was surprised. She’d expected Ed to back her up like they usually did for each other. But she remembered that since he’d been the one to draw the claws and eyebrows on Otabin, leading to Amity almost being bound in a book, he’d felt especially guilty about that day in the library, although Em had assured him and told Amity that she’d been doing the same kind of thing that night and it could’ve just as easily have been her.

“Come on,” Em said. “The library thing was an accident, and we made up for it. Other than that, what have we ever done to her besides some teasing?”

“Maybe all that teasing bothered her more than we realized.”

“What are you talking about? Whenever we teased her, she just got a little annoyed. It’s not like she’s sensitive.”

“What if she’s more sensitive than we think? Maybe she was just putting up a front.”

That made Em think about how upset Amity had been when she'd found out about the bet. And how she'd refused to admit that she was upset.

“But… but we’re her family," Em said. "Why would she feel the need to put up a front for us?”

Em was getting uneasy with this line of thought.

“Hey,” she said after a moment. “You’re acting like it was all one-sided. It’s not like she was the nicest witch to us either. And the whole library thing never would’ve happened if she hadn’t always been trying to get us in trouble for cutting class.”

“Yeah…” Ed said uncertainly. Then, more confidently, he said, “You know, you’re right. And it’s not like she’s ever said sorry about that or anything.”

“Yeah,” Em said. “And since the library thing, we’ve never brought that up. We forgive and forget. Why can’t she?”

Ed and Em nodded at each other, but both kept thinking about Amity and whether they’d upset her over the years more than they’d realized.

* * *

While Ed and Em were discussing Amity, she was going over to Principal Bump, rolling her eyes upon the realization that her brother and sister had gone in the other direction.

“Amity?” Bump said once he’d spotted her.

“Hi, Principal Bump,” she said.

Bump noticed that Amity seemed quite relaxed and cheerful. It was surprising. Ever since Amity had enrolled at Hexside, he’d known her to be quite… severe. Maybe that was just how she was at school. Regardless, she was one of his favorite students, so it was nice to see her in good spirits.

“How are you doing?” he said.

“Fine. I was just here with Edric and Emira.”

“Oh,” Principal Bump said in a slightly sour tone. Although Edric and Emira were talented witches and always did well in school, they were certainly far from ideal students when it came to anything other than performing well on tests. Back when Amity had been about to enroll, he’d been worried about another such rapscallion in his midst. But of course, Amity had turned out to be completely different from her siblings.

“Well, it’s nice to see you,” Principal Bump said.

“Uh, Principal Bump, do you think I could ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“I was just wondering whether it might’ve… looked bad to you when I asked you if someone else could be made Grom Queen.”

It had been something that had been bothering Amity since Grom. She hated the idea of disappointing any of her teachers. It was a testament to just how mortified she’d been at the thought of everyone seeing her fear that she’d gone ahead and asked anyway

Bump considered how to answer. Facing Grom was a formidable task, and it was certainly understandable that Amity had tried to avoid it. Still, he’d been surprised by the request. He was used to Amity jumping at every chance to impress Hexside faculty.

“I wasn’t disappointed,” he said. “There’s no harm in asking. But… you still want to join the Emperor’s Coven someday, right?”

“Of course!”

“Then you should know that to succeed there, you’ll be asked to do many things that will make you uncomfortable. And what they like to see is people who enthusiastically say yes to whatever is asked of them. You should keep that in mind."

Amity nodded. “Thanks, Principal Bump.”

After saying goodbye, Amity walked back over to Ed and Em, who were still reflecting on their treatment of her.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Amity said. “When do you think we should head back?”

Immediately, the twins’ thoughts turned back to their fear of the punishment that awaited.

“There has to be some way to talk our way out of this,” Ed said. Since he’d been the one truly responsible for the mess on the lawn, he was especially desperate to figure something out.

“I don’t see how,” Em said. “Not this time.”

“I hope you guys don’t get in too much trouble,” Amity said.

Ed and Em looked at her quizzically.

“What?” Amity asked.

“It’s just kind of funny to hear you say that,” Em said.

“What do you mean?”

“Just a few weeks ago, you were always _trying_ to get us in trouble,” Ed answered.

“Oh,” Amity said. “Yeah. I guess I was. I’m sorry.”

Ed and Em looked at each other. They’d just been talking about how Amity had never apologized for tattling on them, and here she was doing it.

“Well… why were you?” Em asked.

Amity sighed. “I don’t know, I guess I was jealous that you guys can always get away with things when I felt like I could never get away with anything.” Amity didn’t say it, but she thought maybe she was also jealous of them for another reason. She used to feel so lonely, but they’d always had someone they could count on. “But I shouldn’t have let that bother me.”

“Hey,” Ed said. “All that’s in the past now, right?”

“Yeah,” Em said.

But as they walked back home, both the twins, especially Em, kept thinking about their relationship with Amity and whether they’d been more at fault than they’d thought.

* * *

On the way home, Ed, Em, and Amity passed by the entrance to a park where they ran into one of Ed’s and Em’s friends, a witch named Troquile with a head like a giant hummingbird’s.

“Oh, hi guys!” she said to the twins. 

Ed and Em said hello in turn.

“Amity, is that you?” Troquile said.

Amity nodded.

“I haven’t seen you in such a long time!" Troquile said. "You've gotten so big! What are the three of you up to?”

“Just hanging out,” Ed said.

“Oh,” Troquile said. “You know, it’s funny. Ed and Em, I _always_ see you two together, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen all three of you together.”

Ed and Em exchanged uneasy glances.

“Um… we spend time with Amity,” Em said after a moment.

“Oh, I’m sure you do!" Troquile said. "I didn’t mean anything by that.”

“Mittens,” Ed said. “Tell her about all the stuff we’ve done together since Grom.”

“Well, first Em and I went to the bookstore where we rescued this paper man, and then Ed and I went to the zoo where we got attacked by this roc–”

“Wait a minute,” Troquile said. “You were with Ed and Em separately? That’s kind of surprising.”

“Oh, that was because of this bet they had,” Amity said.

“Bet?” Troquile asked.

“It’s a long story,” Amity said. “But it’s the reason they've been spending so much time with me since Grom.”

“Well… that wasn’t the _only_ reason,” Em said.

“See, they had this bet–”

“So,” Ed said loudly, eager to change the subject. “What are you doing here?”

Em poked Amity’s back to signal her to stop talking about the bet, which made Amity look at her in annoyance.

“I’m just waiting for Eulidia,” Troquile answered Ed.

“Eulidia’s her little sister,” Ed explained to Amity.

“Yeah,” Troquile said. “Her friend's having a half-birthday party in the park. I’m here to pick her up.”

“Oh, what a pain,” Em said.

“A pain?” Troquile’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Well… having to pick her up,” Em said.

“I don’t _have_ to; I want to! Eulidia and I look for any chance we get to spend time together!”

Indeed, Ed and Em remembered all the times they’d tried making plans with Troquile only to find out that she was already doing something with her little sister. In fact, it had happened every time each of them had tried to make plans with her during the bet, which was why she hadn’t known about it.

“Uh… same with us!” Em said with forced cheer. “Right, Mittens?”

Em grabbed Amity by the side in a tight embrace, but Amity pushed her away.

“Hey, quit it!” Amity said.

Troquile looked at Em with a raised eyebrow and Em gave her a nervous smile.

Then, they heard a voice call out from behind them. “Troquile!”

It was Eulidia. She ran over to jump into Troquile’s outstretched arms, and the two of them laughed as Troquile swung her around.

“Uh… that looks like fun!” Ed said with some forced cheer of his own. “Doesn’t it, Mittens?”

He put his hands under her arms to pick her up and swing her around only for her to immediately start struggling.

“What are you doing? Put me down!”

While Ed struggled with Amity, Em asked, “You two are really close, but you guys aren't _always_ like this, right?"

"What do you mean?" Troquile asked.

"Well, for example, you two must fight sometimes, right?”

The two of them gasped.

“Why would I _ever_ fight with my sister?” Troquile asked, aghast. “She’s my best friend!”

“Yeah!” Eulidia said. “I don’t know what I’d do without my big sister! She’s always looking out for me and supporting me. Just like what _you’ve_ always done for _your_ little sister. Right?”

“Uh… yeah, of course!” Em said desperately.

Em looked over to Amity, worried that she'd make some sarcastic comment in response, but luckily, she was still distracted by Ed's antics. By this point, Amity had summoned an abomination to pin him down.

"Hey, put that thing away!" Ed said.

“Well, we’d better get going,” Troquile said. “You three have fun!”

Em watched the two of them walk away, chatting and laughing gleefully, while Amity got rid of the abomination.

“Wow,” Amity said as Ed picked himself up. “Those two are so weird. What kind of siblings act that way?”

“Yeah…” Em said with her head downturned.

* * *

Soon after that, the three of them reached home, where they were surprised to find that their parents weren’t waiting for them.

“This is weird,” Ed said.

“Have you two checked your scrolls?” Amity asked.

Ed and Em had been avoiding looking at their scrolls knowing they would just be full of angry messages from their parents. They checked them, and indeed they were. But the last one was a message that their parents had left for a moment to make a quick appearance at some bigwig’s birthday party. However, they fully expected Ed and Em to be back with an explanation about the lawn by the time they returned.

“Looks like we’ve got a little more time, at least,” Ed said.

Amity went to her room to study, leaving Ed and Em to wait in the living room for their parents.

“Ed,” Em said. “I’m wondering… have we been… terrible siblings? All this time?”

“Well… we haven’t been the _best_ … but that’s all in the past, right?”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know, I just feel kind of bad about it.”

“I guess I kind of do too. But we’ve been pretty nice to Mittens lately. And spent more time with her.”

“Yeah… but she still thinks it was all because of the bet.”

“But not last night. The bet was over.”

“Yeah, but that was just one night. She probably thinks it’s only a matter of time before things go back to normal. We need to do more.”

“Like what?”

“Well… we spend _all_ our time together, right? We always have.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe we need to stop thinking of us as the two of us and Amity and start thinking of us as the three of us.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, you know what I mean. All three of us need to spend all our time together from now on just like you and I do.”

Ed considered it. It seemed a little extreme. But maybe Em was right. Hadn’t he been worried about getting excluded during the bet and then wondered whether Amity had felt that way all this time? Now was their chance to stop that.

“OK,” Ed said. “Let’s do it.”

* * *

A few minutes later, Amity was studying in her room when she heard a knock at the door. She went over to unlock it and found Ed and Em outside.

“Hey,” Ed said.

“What is it?” Amity asked. Immediately, she was surprised by the twins’ demeanor. They seemed… serious. Or rather earnest. They were almost never like that, not without good reason.

“Well… we’ve been talking about it,” Em said. “And we decided we want things to be better between us.”

“Aren’t they already?”

“Yeah, but… even more so,” Ed said.

“From now on, we want all three of us to always get along and spend all our time together.” Em said. “What do you say?”

“What’s with you two? You’re acting weird.”

“Well…” Em said. “We’ve just been… thinking about some things lately…”

Em trailed off. It was so bizarre for the two of them to act like this, especially Em. Amity’s first instinct was to scoff at them and act annoyed like she usually did. But the way they were acting was disarming. They were being so uncharacteristically sincere that it made her feel like she should let down her guard a little and reciprocate. And the events of the past few days had made her wonder what a closer relationship with her siblings would be like.

“Well… OK,” Amity said.

Ed and Em smiled.

“Great!” Ed said.

“We’re all going to love it!” Em said.

What Amity didn’t realize was that when Em had said that from then on, they’d spend “all” their time together, she hadn’t been exaggerating. And Amity had no idea how much trouble that pledge was going to cause her over the next few days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked it! You can read the next part of the story [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27492373/chapters/67333222).


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